that’s whacked

catch the fever

Friday, Oct 22. 2004  –  Category: Musings

a recent post by erik made me wonder about yellow fever.

(yellow fever in case you’re wondering is a slang term used for when a non-asian person prefers to date asians)

most of the time, when we say a guy has yellow fever - it seems to come with a derisive connotation. by saying someone has yellow fever, it almost implicitly means they prefer a quiet, domesticated, and dare i say it, obedient, stereotypical asian wife… usually Japanese. i know this is a huge generalisation, but just bear with me.

but when we say a girl has yellow fever (like Liz, Erik’s ex), people have a different view. “wow, that’s so cool that she’s going to work in Japan!” vs. “wow. that perv is just going to Japan to find a Japanese wife”.

why is this? why do we admire a girl for having “a touch of the yellow fever”, but condemn the guy?

the best i can come up with is that Asian cultures have typically been male-dominated. this was also true of older Western cultures, but now (despite what you feminists say), i think things have gotten pretty equal. but Asian cultures still seem to be relatively male-dominated. a Western woman going to an Asian culture is thus to be admired, since she’s going to be facing different challenges, stereotypes, etc. but a Western man is to be villified for going to take advantage of the male-dominated culture to “find himself an Asian bride”.

just a random thought.